Biracial or Black, Don't Let it Be the Deciding Factor

As the presidential race heats up I seem to notice the problem that people have with Barrack Obama's race and whether or not he is being referred to as black or biracial. I have tried to downplay the issue with Barrack's race but both sides(black and white) are going at it so often that it has become a huge issue in this campaign and threatens to cause people to make issues of importance take a back seat, (which is what I think opponents of Barrack are trying to do by bringing up the issue in the first place).

One of the groups that has shown such hostility and intolerance are African Americans. The one thing that AA's keep insisting in droves ( from what I am reading on message boards and forums) is that Barrack should only claim that he is AA, by claiming anything other than black he is downplaying his race or trying to pander to the white vote. This belief of catering to the white vote is absolutely ridiculous, anybody who looks at Obama can clearly see that he is black in color and anyone who has an issue with his race is not going to vote for him simply because he says that he is half white.

As a biracial person ,I, and millions of others have dealt with the issue of choosing one side or another all of our lives and some of us are getting sick of it. I am half Latina/AA and I have had to listen to the constant "which one are you", which forced me to choose a side, when I chose the wrong one I was met with dirty looks and hateful responses. The AA's wanted me to be AA and the Hispanics wanted me to be Hispanic. When it came down to the issue of what I was, AA's had the one drop rule which says if you have one ounce of black blood in you then you are automatically Black. Latinos said, you were raised by your mother who is Latina so therefore you are Hispanic culturally and your culture is who you are, as you can probably guess I was constantly confused.

I claim myself as a Latina not because I think that Hispanics are better than AA's but because that is how I was raised!!! I was raised by a Hispanic mother who fed me all the wonderful foods of the Southwest, spoke in Spanish and English until I was about the age of 10 and had the demeanor of a Latina. I was not raised around very many AA people and the only way that I learned about my black history was through books, as I had no one to teach me personally, I'm not crying about it I'm simply stating that that was the way that it was. More importantly, the reason I chose Hispanic vs. AA is that the little box said I could only choose one, so does a person choose the race they have little contact with or the race that raised them, it's a tough one!!!

I understand what Barrack is going through, he was raised by white people and he has their outlook on life but he wants to know, experience and help the other half as well. Obama is not holding up one culture over the other, as many would like to think, but is simply stating that he is capable of seeing things from both sides of the fence, I do not consider this a setback, I see this as an advantage. I see the argument of pure race vs. biracial as a mutt vs. a purebred dog, the mutt will always be the wiser of the two dogs as he has all the experiences from his different breeds to help him out which leads to a smarter animal in the end. A purebred dog is very beautiful, but beauty doesn't help a dog get something to eat when he's outdoors. These are just my opinions and I hope that people vote in November based on what the candidates can do for them and not what color people are.